I haven’t seen a movie in a movie theatre in over a year! But my streak was finally broken when Nelson suggested that we go see Scott Pilgrim vs the World. I don’t watch commercials, pay attention to media, read movie blogs, etc so I had no idea what this movie was about; and for so many parts in the movie I kept thinking, “Wow, that makes no sense at all”. But it was an enjoyable experience and fun to watch.

The premise is that Scott is an early 20s loser (ok – aspiring musician) hanging out in what looks to be Toronto’s Annex, and has to do battle with his new girlfriend’s 7 exes. And by “do battle”, I mean “do battle” but not in a fighting way. It’s actually in a crazy Chinese-movie style way, where the combatants all of a sudden have super powers. The battles imitate video games where Scott can leap into the air and air combo his opponent with a 60-hit combo. So it actually is more like Street Fighter. Plus, there is actually an animation that tells us he did a 64-hit combo.

The movie centers around these incredulous fights between Scott and the Exes; but surprisingly, those are the most relatable parts of the film (well at least if you’re familiar with video games). Linking the fights together are some awkward moments between the characters. It almost seems like bad acting, but now that I think about it, it is almost like live comic strips. The scenes are simple and not complicated by extraneous cognitive load – there is straightforward dialog which leads to a comic strip punchline, before repeating and setting up the next punchline (or fight). But because of that, it feels disjointed, although not in a way where it doesn’t make sense nor is it detrimental to the plot.

Aside from the fact that it was interestingly odd, the appeal of SP vs tW is that it was placed in Toronto. There were a lot of Toronto landmarks (Casa Loma, Honest Eds, Lee’s Palace) and culture (CBC, SARS, Second Cup). It felt home grown! Although the movie both makes sense and doesn’t make sense at all, and is deeply entrenched in video game culture, it was strangely entertaining. I would give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: comics, games, moviereview